The Post-American World 2.0

Here is the New York Times and international best seller, revised and expanded with a new afterword. This is the essential update of Fareed Zakaria's analysis about America and its shifting position in world affairs. In this new edition, Zakaria makes sense of the rapidly changing global landscape. With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, he draws on lessons from the two great power shifts of the past 500 years - the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States - to tell us what we can expect from the third shift, the rise of the rest.

American Sketches: Great Leaders, Creative Thinkers, and Heroes of a Hurricane

In this collection of essays, Walter Isaacson reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has chronicled as a biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, in most cases, but that is not the secret of their success.

The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution

Virtually all human societies were once organized tribally, yet over time most developed new political institutions which included a central state that could keep the peace and uniform laws that applied to all citizens. Some went on to create governments that were accountable to their constituents. We take these institutions for granted, but they are absent or are unable to perform in many of today’s developing countries—with often disastrous consequences for the rest of the world.

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh’s army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians.

Eating the Dinosaur

In Eating the Dinosaur, Klosterman is more entertaining and incisive than ever. Whether he's dissecting the boredom of voyeurism, the reason why music fan's inevitably hate their favorite band's latest album, or why we love watching can't-miss superstars fail spectacularly, Klosterman remains obsessed with the relationship between expectation, reality, and living history. It's amateur anthropology for the present tense, and sometimes it's incredibly funny.

The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad

American democracy is, in many people's minds, the model for the rest of the world. Fareed Zakaria points out that the American form of democracy is one of the least democratic in use today. Members of the Supreme Court and the Federal Reserve, institutions that fundamentally shape our lives, are appointed, not elected. The Bill of Rights enumerates a set of privileges to which citizens are entitled, no matter what the majority says. By restricting our democracy, we enhance our freedom.

A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present

A classic since its original landmark publication in 1980, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is the first scholarly work to tell America's story from the bottom up - from the point of view of, and in the words of, America's women, factory workers, African-Americans, Native Americans, the working poor, and immigrant laborers.

Thinking Like an Economist: A Guide to Rational Decision Making

Economic forces are everywhere around you. But that doesn't mean you need to passively accept whatever outcome those forces might press upon you. Instead, with these 12 fast-moving and crystal clear lectures, you can learn how to use a small handful of basic nuts-and-bolts principles to turn those same forces to your own advantage.

Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google over a decade ago as proven technology executives. At the time, the company was already well-known for doing things differently, reflecting the visionary - and frequently contrarian - principles of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. If Eric and Jonathan were going to succeed, they realized they would have to relearn everything they thought they knew about management and business.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World

The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.

The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems

A legacy work from the multimillion copy best-selling author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - hailed as the #1 Most Influential Business Book of the Twentieth Century - The 3rd Alternative introduces a breakthrough approach to conflict resolution and creative problem solving.

Your Deceptive Mind: A Scientific Guide to Critical Thinking Skills

No skill is more important in today's world than being able to think about, understand, and act on information in an effective and responsible way. What's more, at no point in human history have we had access to so much information, with such relative ease, as we do in the 21st century. But because misinformation out there has increased as well, critical thinking is more important than ever. These 24 rewarding lectures equip you with the knowledge and techniques you need to become a savvier, sharper critical thinker in your professional and personal life.

The Search for Exoplanets: What Astronomers Know

As recently as 1990, it seemed plausible that the solar system was a unique phenomenon in our galaxy. Thanks to advances in technology and clever new uses of existing data, now we know that planetary systems and possibly even a new Earth can be found throughout galaxies near and far.

In Defense of a Liberal Education

The liberal arts educational system is under attack. Governors in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina have announced that they will not spend taxpayer money subsidizing the liberal arts. Majors like English and history - which were once very popular and highly respected - are in steep decline, and President Obama has recently advised students to keep in mind that technical training could be more valuable than a degree in art history when deciding on an educational path.

Panzer Commander: The Memoirs of Colonel Hans von Luck

A stunning look at World War II from the other side.... From the turret of a German tank, Colonel Hans von Luck commanded Rommel's 7th and then 21st Panzer Division. El Alamein, Kasserine Pass, Poland, Belgium, Normandy on D-Day, the disastrous Russian front - von Luck fought there with some of the best soldiers in the world. German soldiers. Awarded the German Cross in Gold and the Knight's Cross, von Luck writes as an officer and a gentleman.

Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning

To most of us, learning something 'the hard way' implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head and will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.

The Johnstown Flood

At the end of the last century, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was a booming coal-and-steel town filled with hardworking families striving for a piece of the nation's burgeoning industrial prosperity. In the mountains above Johnstown, an old earth dam had been hastily rebuilt to create a lake for an exclusive summer resort patronized by the tycoons of that same industrial prosperity, among them Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and Andrew Mellon.

Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain

The New York Times best-selling Freakonomics changed the way we see the world, exposing the hidden side of just about everything. Now, with Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner have written their most revolutionary book yet. With their trademark blend of captivating storytelling and unconventional analysis, they take us inside their thought process and offer a blueprint for an entirely new way to solve problems. The topics range from business to philanthropy to sports to politics, all with the goal of retraining your brain.

How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness

In How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life, Roberts examines Smith’s forgotten masterpiece, and finds a treasure trove of timeless, practical wisdom. Smith’s insights into human nature are just as relevant today as they were 300 years ago. What does it take to be truly happy? Should we pursue fame and fortune or the respect of our friends and family? How can we make the world a better place?

Amazing Customer says:"Hard to distinguish Roberts from Smith in reading"

How to Speak Money: What the Money People Say - and What It Really Means

How to Speak Money reveals how the language of money is often a tool to conceal and mislead; he explains hundreds of common economic terms, from GDP to the IMF, amortization to securitization to collateralized debt obligation; and he argues that we all need to speak money lest those who do write the financial rules for themselves.

Arrival of the Fittest: Solving Evolution's Greatest Puzzle

In Arrival of the Fittest, renowned evolutionary biologist Andreas Wagner draws on over 15 years of research to present the missing piece in Darwin's theory. Using experimental and computational technologies that were heretofore unimagined, he has found that adaptations are not just driven by chance, but by a set of laws that allow nature to discover new molecules and mechanisms in a fraction of the time that random variation would take.

The American Civil War

Between 1861 and 1865, the clash of the greatest armies the Western hemisphere had ever seen turned small towns, little-known streams, and obscure meadows in the American countryside into names we will always remember. In those great battles, those streams ran red with blood-and the United States was truly born.

War and Peace

Often called the greatest novel ever written, War and Peace is at once an epic of the Napoleonic wars, a philosophical study, and a celebration of the Russian spirit. Tolstoy's genius is clearly seen in the multitude of characters in this massive chronicle, all of them fully realized and equally memorable.

The Formula: How Algorithms Solve all our Problems…and Create More

A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms - what they are, why they’re such powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they’re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola.

Publisher's Summary

For Fareed Zakaria, the great story of our times is not the decline of America but rather the rise of everyone else - the growth of countries such as China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Kenya, and many, many more.

This economic growth is generating a new global landscape where power is shifting and wealth and innovation are bubbling up in unexpected places. It's also producing political confidence and national pride. As these trends continue, the push of globalization will increasingly be joined by the pull of nationalism - a tension that is likely to define the next decades.

With his customary lucidity, insight, and imagination, Zakaria draws on lessons from the two great power shifts of the past 500 years - the rise of the Western world and the rise of the United States - to tell us what we can expect from the third shift, the "rise of the rest".

Washington must begin a serious transformation of global strategy and seek to share power, create coalitions, build legitimacy, and define the global agenda. None of this will be easy for the greatest power the world has ever known - the only power that for so long has really mattered. But all that is changing now. The future we face is the post-American world.

Mr. Zakaria's perspective on what's happening in the world outside of the US framework is a compelling and somewhat entertaining account of what we, Americans, must wake up to. This book is a must read for those who want to understand how we can tackle foreign policy in years to come and why the US foreign policy of the last 25 years have been a total disaster. However, this book concentrates on the "Chindia Rise"--i.e. China and India--and leaves much of the rest to superficial speculations. The analysis on China and India are well documented and referenced, but not so that of the rest of the world--i.e. South America, Africa and even Europe--which are also going through so profound transformations as those experienced in China and India.

This book provides an insightful perspective on the socio-economic idiosyncrasy of Chinese and Indian cultures--skillfully translated to the American mentality. Zakaria gives us a wake-up call on how those two countries can, and will, become US competitors in the global market and trade politics. Perhaps the most important point we can get from this book is that the US government and its people must get educated on the realities and "rise of the rest of the world", and the contradictory and hegemonic stance of the US government foreign policy. We have been to busy identifying our next enemies rather than our next friends.

Mr. Zakaria presents his views from a journalistic perspective--full of newspaper headlines and Google's sounds bites--rather than a scholar perspective; as a result, some of the statements may sound superficial or naive. He talks very little about how energy issues are having a significant impact on US and world economy, including the Russia's re-birth and the leftist socialistic trends in South America.

This is the perfect audio-book. It is easy to listen to and somewhat entertaining with numerous anecdotes from the author. I highly recommend it.

There's a lot out there today on how terrible the situation is right now in the US--the economy is in the tank, the political situation is miserable, our educational system is routinely beaten by third world countries. While Zakaria is certainly aware of the negatives, he provides a more balanced perspective on the current political-economic situation, stressing a lot of the positives you won't hear on news shows. When he says Post-American World he means a world where America is not powerful enough to force its will on any situation it wants, a world where America has to take the perspectives of other countries into account, not one where America is only the dominant player.

I thought the chapter on China was an excellent analysis, again looking at China's strengths and weaknesses. His understanding of why China acts the way it does in Darfur is insightful. His take on America is similarly balanced, one perhaps only an immigrant could provide.

All in all, if you read the op-ed pages or listen to the news talk shows, a worthwhile listen.

In my opinion not as good as his first book. Post-American World rambles a bit, making first the main point covered much more insightfully in FZ's first book (capitalism, not democracy, is the path of successful nations' development), then moving on to a macro description of China (interesting), India (not so much), and the United States (very interesting). His fundamental point is more intuitive than profound: America is and will remain a great power, but other nations (especially China, India) will rise in relative importance. FZ has a rare ability to quote facts and data that support/refute such typically unsupported macro descriptions such as level of centralization / socialism, and one can't finish a book of his without learning some very interesting things about our world and the U.S. I always wish, however, that he would build on his detailed understanding to give some practical prescriptions for policy makers. He attempts to do so at the end of this book, but his list of "rules for a new age" is academic (go figure) and therefore seems more interesting than actionable, for example "Choose - set priorities," "Be Bismark not Britain," "Legitimacy is Power." Overall, I'd recommend the book, and I would strongly recommend his first, "The Future of Freedom."

As a conservative and political junkie, I have to take issue with some of the other comments. A reader doesn't have to agree with every point or accept every assertion as accurate to find real thinking value in a piece. This is not an anti-American book at all. If fuses some really startling points on how through our nation's global successes (economic and political) we have succeeded in helping the world to change and grow so quickly that our position as a sole superpower is challenged from the rise of other nations more than our own decline. If you believe competition is good, are optimistic about American ingenuity, and are not afraid of the new inter-related world, there's a great deal in this book to excite. If you're looking for the same old stale rhetoric about America and the world stage (anti or pro American), you may not like this piece. For those not afraid to think outside of the box, you'll get a lot from this book.

As a conservative and political junkie, I have to take issue with some of the other comments. A reader doesn't have to agree with every point or accept every assertion as accurate to find real thinking value in a piece. This is not an anti-American book at all. If fuses some really startling points on how through our nation's global successes (economic and political) we have succeeded in helping the world to change and grow so quickly that our position as a sole superpower is challenged from the rise of other nations more than our own decline. If you believe competition is good, are optimistic about American ingenuity, and are not afraid of the new inter-related world, there's a great deal in this book to excite. If you're looking for the same old stale rhetoric about America and the world stage (anti or pro American), you may not like this piece. For those not afraid to think outside of the box, you'll get a lot from this book.

This book covers the problems that the US will likely face as other countries rise out of centuries of poverty, but it also outlines ways to ensure a spot in the flat future. A must read for anyone that wants to rise above the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that is peddled by our 24 hour news networks and squabbling politicians.

Despite the title that makes this seem like it will be a doom and gloom book, it offers a great deal of hope and guidance for the future. Zakaria focuses on China and India as some of the main player in the "Rise of the Rest". He reminds us of how Britain lost its role as super power but points out the ways it kept its influence even up to current times. He outlines a route we as a country can take as the US becomes less of the only super power but a leader and guide in a diverse world where more countries will be rising. He offers statistics to refute the fear-mongered view that we are in desperate times, and offers concrete ways we can move to insure a leadership role while keeping the best interests of other countries in mind.

The problem with a lot of books about globalization is that they get too mired in mind numbing statistics that profess to tell much, but actually tell very little. More often motivated by a free-trader zealotry, these authors are so focused on pushing a particular economic agenda that their arguments become suspect. Dr. Fareed Zakaria's book "The Post-American World" is a refreshing change from all that.

Many people will be familiar with Zakaria from a variety of sources. Still it is interesting to see the brilliance he conveys when not limited to the 30 second analysis. Zakaria's advantage over others who have written in this field is that he takes a broader view. Not solely focused on China and India as the only games on the block (though much of the book is about them) he views them as two of the most important aspects of a larger phenomena he calls "The Rise of the Rest."

The ability to contextualize globalization in truly global terms is what gives this book its fascinating and helpful slant. Additionally, Zakaria is not burdened by cold-war baggage. He is able to view the history of China and India as not mistaken blind alleys that only needed to be discarded, but as an integral part of the process that led them to the place they now are. His focus not on just history but culture as well allows him the sort of breadth that contextualizes the present in a way others cannot.

Zakaria is likewise not interested in frightening his readers. His view is the globalization is as inevitable as it is positive. He decries the sort of jingoism and isolationism that both American political parties have engaged in and recognizes that there is simply a new game in town. Americans must now learn to play under the new rules. These new rules require multilateralism and global structures and show that no longer can we go it alone. But if America is willing it can still be the world's leader.

This book provides a comprehensive and sobering perspective of the international community. The main premise, that the world has moved past an age where it once was dominated and cared for by all things American,is well supported and relevant. The first two or three chapters develop on this theme showing how other countries have their own cultures and economies which remain less penetrated than we might think by American hard and soft power.

Later in the book there are a few chapters that are merely so-so. One chapter in particular, about the historic reasons why the West developed and other cultures did not, deals with a topic that is perhaps best left to other authors. There are also chapters devoted to the rise of China and India, which are okay, but, there is nothing special about them.

Near the final chapter of the book comes a section about what a relative decline in power means for America. It highlights the prominent features of the process, and dismisses other facts and figures as scaremongering perspectives on the subject. This section of the book is largely the same as an article he wrote for Foriegn Affairs. It's an important read.

Overall, the book's stregnth lies in the fact that it provides a pragmatic and comprehensive picture of the international scene without overembelishment. Although the book takes a few detours down roads that are not entirely related to the main idea, or thoroughly comprehensive, it doesn't detract from the sections of the book that are pure gold.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating thing about this book is that it was written prior to the current economic meltdown. And, by the way, it's exactly on target.

Rather than demonizing the US and what it does wrong, the book points out that for decades, we've been encouraging the rest of the world to follow our lead in building their economies and political systems. Low and behold, it's happening! There are certainly some admonitions for changes we should make at home, but this book is more about what the future holds and our place in it.